Confession: I didn’t take this photo. I grabbed it from an online photo subscription source that I love to utilize. Occasionally using their photos has enabled me to continue writing here since I don’t have the work time I used to have now that we have little ones in the house again! Without a doubt, their photos are better than mine anyway!

How to make Iced Coffee that is Actually Healthy

They have two coffee options, but I prefer the taste (actually, I love the taste!) of their Burn and Control coffee. Here’s a quick summary of why their coffee is actually healthy!

Dollar Coffee Club coffee (formerly known as Javita) is filled with fabulous God-given herbs and mushrooms that our bodies need for great health. We could grow these herbs ourselves and utilize them every day to help cleanse our systems, give us energy, regulate our blood sugar, and so much more. Or we can take advantage of the fact that the hard work has been done and the wonderful herbs are already prepared for us in these delicious drink packets!

Typically, I make my coffee packet into a regular hot coffee. But to make it into an iced coffee, I simply heat a little water and dissolve the packet in the hot water (about 3 Tablespoons). Then, I add cold water, my coffee ice cubes, and voila! I have healthy iced coffee!

2. Next, I add 1/2 and 1/2 or heavy cream.

Lest you fear that the cream makes the coffee unhealthy, I will remind you that it is a real, natural fat that our bodies recognize and can utilize for nourishment. Hooray for cream! This makes it sweet enough as for my taste and preference, therefore I declare that coffee with cream is absolute perfection! My family disagrees and prefers something sweet with their cream. And so…

It is sweetened with stevia, but you can’t even tell! My family is a bit picky over most stevia-sweetened treats. But this chocolate syrup wins them over and is perfect to add to coffee and cream for a fabulously sweet (but not sugary!) coffee treat!

So, coffee filled with wonderful, healing herbs, plus cream, with or without stevia sweetened chocolate. THAT is how you can make an iced coffee that is actually healthy!

Just like our Homemade Vanilla Pudding recipe, this one is tried and true and worth another share. We wanted to highlight it again as another school year is approaching (I know, I don’t want to talk about it either!). This is a great recipe for an after school snack or to pack in a lunch.

What’s the cheater way to make these Frozen Yogurt Cups?

Well, as you know, I’ve started buying a few cheater foods at the grocery store. Why? Well, now that our family is doing foster care and have started over raising Littles, all while keeping up with the Bigs, and navigating all the meetings and such involved with foster care – my time in the kitchen is more limited than before. And that’s saying something.

So yeah. Sometimes I buy ready-to-serve yogurt. It’s sweeter than what I could or would make myself if I always made or bought it plain and added our own good ingredients. But I’m pretty happy with the pre-made Whole Milk Yogurts I’ve found. So for now, we settle for this yogurt compromise.

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——> Need some re-assurance that compromising on perfect foods is just fine and dandy? Read my post called Beyond the Free Range Chicken. Be encouraged! Be free! Buy the yogurt. (Or not. Because we’re all in a different place and God will lead us each in how to feed our families.) <——-

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Meanwhile, in the land of store-bought yogurt and 5-year old chefs, may we now present to you the lovely idea you are going to thoroughly enjoy this summer!

First, if you don’t already have them, I highly recommend that you invest in these lovely silicone muffin cups. With these jewels, you can make this Frozen Yogurt Cup “recipe” and many more. I love them and don’t know how I got by without them!

Need some resources to help you know where to start?

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Would someone please stop me from eating all of these Flourless Brownie Muffins?

Just kidding. I’d actually like to keep eating them.

And also, I can let the kids eat all the Flourless Brownie Muffins they want because there is no reason to hold back on these. Want a brownie for breakfast? Sure! Want three more brownies? Okeedokee. Ran out and need to bake more brownies? Shucks, don’t mind if I do.

I’ve been trying to trouble shoot and solve the mystery of this, because these recipes turn out great for me every single time! Is it my oven? It can’t possibly be that my oven works in these recipes and all other ovens don’t. Is it the temp? The time?

I do believe it’s the time. I shortened the baking time in the instructions, hoping that will make a big difference. I believe the trick to turning out perfect Super Moist Flourless Brownies is to pull them out of the oven when they are slightly underdone. If they bake too long, they will become dry and taste like burned nut butter. Meh.

So during my time of tweaking and trouble shooting, it occurred to me that I should try baking this recipe in muffin cups. Perhaps that would turn out Super Moist Flourless Brownie Muffins, I thought. Maybe if this recipe was baked in muffin cups, we could bake them for less time and avoid drying out our brownies.

Well, as it turned out, once again these Super Moist Flourless Brownie Muffins turned out perfect for me! So perfect, in fact, I had a difficult time staying out of them. “I just want one more. I can quit any time…”

As for baking time on these Super Moist Flourless Brownie Muffins, I’m going to recommend 12-15 minutes. They may look slightly underdone when you pull them out. But this is what will keep them gooey and delicious!

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. (Remove them from the oven when they are just slightly underdone so they come out moist!)

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I felt this recipe was worth sharing in the middle of my Lunch in a Jar series simply because these Super Moist Flourless Brownie Muffins are perfect for your Back to School Lunchbox! They are filling, nourishing, and fun!

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Like the old saying goes, when life gives you Super Moist Flourless Brownies, switch the almond butter for peanut butter and turn them into Super Moist Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies.

I admit that I often get on recipe kicks at my house. We discover a new recipe we love and we make it thirty times in forty days because we can’t get enough. (Sometimes, but not always, I exaggerate.) So it is with both varieties of these Super Moist Flourless Brownies. They are so incredibly good that we have gone through a ridiculous amount of Almond Butter and Peanut Butter in the past month and a half.

There goes the grocery budget.

Well, only sort of. After all, both of these brownie varieties are super wholesome and full of protein. So I’ll put out a pan of these for breakfast (no one complains, mind you) and because they are so rich and filling, there’s no need for me to add meat to the meal. Therefore, we’re subbing nut butter for bacon on days like this. Money-wise, it’s kind of a wash. Taste wise, well, we love our bacon, but the trade off is brownies. So everyone is happy.

If you’ve tried the Super Moist Flourless Brownie recipe (only 5 ingredients!) you’ll look at this one and notice that the only difference is a direct exchange of peanut butter for the almond butter. It’s too easy!

But here’s the thing: The tiny ingredient switch makes for a significant flavor change. This Super Moist Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies recipe really turns out a treat with the awesome peanut-butter-chocolate taste so many of us love! The Super Moist Flourless Brownies recipe made with almond butter taste like regular, but amazing, brownies.

So we love both. A lot. Like, I’m buying cases of Almond Butter just so we can make brownies. I can’t help it.

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From now on, these Super Moist Flourless Brownies are the ones I will be making for my family. I’m very happy to share that there are no bananas involved in the making of this recipe. Allow me to explain how I really feel about this…

Deliver me from all recipes that are naturally sweetened with bananas. (See also: Pudding made creamy because of avocados.)

I love the idea; I think it is beautiful. What a fantastic way to sneak in fruits and veggies by adding them to our treats! But I’ve tried the banana-peanut butter-cocoa powder ice cream and I just can’t make myself like it. The same is true of the pancakes made with only bananas and eggs. Chocolate pudding made by blending avocados? I just can’t.

Am I picky? I like to think not. For goodness sake, I’m the girl who eats fresh spinach straight out of the container as a snack (basically this is me being too lazy to actually take time to get out bowl and a fork). So picky I am not. But I just can’t get into eating blended frozen bananas that are pretending to be ice cream.

Should we broach the subject of brownies made with black beans? I think this is a genius idea, but my children are less than impressed. Most of my healthy attempts at creating a low-sugar-no-flour brownie have fallen ridiculously short of, “Mom, make them this way every time!”

Until now.

The ingredients in these Super Moist Flourless Brownies won’t even shock you. There’s no secret ingredient that will cause you to cringe or question whether or not your family might actually try one.

You’ll be wonderfully amazed! These brownies actually have the taste and texture of brownies that come from a box, only of course, the real food ingredients make them even more delicious! My kids took a bite of these and couldn’t believe that these brownies were “actually healthy.” Our first pan lasted a very short time.

Look at these ingredients! How good can we feel about feeding these brownies to our kids? Good enough to serve them for breakfast? Absolutely.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 18-20 minutes. (Remove them from the oven when they are just slightly underdone so they come out moist!)

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Can you sub out peanut butter for almond butter? I don’t know why not. In fact, I think that would create a delicious chocolate-peanut butter brownie worth writing home about.

Enjoy the simplicity of this recipe! Get excited about the nourishment and energy the brownies provide. Savor eating brownies for breakfast with your morning coffee. Delight in the fact that there are no bananas involved in the making of this treat. As for me and my house, we’ll save the bananas for creating smoothies and banana bread.

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Did you notice that this new Super Moist Flourless Brownie recipe includes only 5 ingredients? How does this keep happening?? (OK, I admit. I’ve been on a High Five Recipe rampage. We all win when I get on a kick like this!)

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Indeed, I’m talking about actual harmony asthese No Bake Cookie Cups sing to me when I walk into the kitchen each morning. It’s like I have my very own Barber Shop Quartet sitting in my refrigerator. Just think of it! I open the fridge door at 6:30 am and these cookie cups take off their red and white striped hats to salute me. Then the singing begins.

I’ll spare you the song lyrics, but they are obviously all about how well I pull off the “just rolled out of bed” look with my mis-matched pajamas and fly-away hair.

Why all the hoopla about this simple snack recipe? Because it truly is my very favorite. These No Bake Cookie Cups are a perfect mix of nourishment and deliciousness. They are super filling because they are loaded with good fat and protein. The oats make them seem more like a no-bake cookie, and well, oats are good. The fact that these are made in muffin cups makes them even easier to make and definitely easier to eat.

So basically, these No Bake Cookie Cups are perfection, which is why we can all break out in to four part harmony together as we rejoice over this snack.

Here’s why they qualify as a Simple Snack Recipe: These come together in about five minutes. Scoop all ingredients into a saucepan and stir together until melted (five minutes, tops). Add the oats. Pour into muffin cups. Refrigerate. Eat. Sing. Be happy.

Liquid stevia to taste (I use 1½ droppers full of NuNaturals Brand.) or 2-3 Tablespoons honey

1 cup whole rolled oats

Instructions

In a small saucepan, heat and stir together coconut oil, cocoa powder, butter, honey, and peanut butter. (If using stevia as sweetener, wait to add it until after ingredients are melted and you've removed the pan from the heat.)

It’s worth noting that these taste best right out of the fridge and start to melt quickly if left out for longer than two minutes. Don’t ask me about the time I packed one to eat at a basketball game. Ok fine. I’ll tell you anyway. I once packed a No Bake Cookie Cup to eat at a basketball game, but by the time we arrived and I got it out to enjoy, it had turned to a baggie full of mush that required a spoon and five napkins. Good story, huh?

Stay tuned for more great (stories and also) Simple Snack Recipes you’ll love!

Here I am calling pie crusts normal as if I make them all the time. No ma’am I do not. It’s rare that I actually take the time to make and roll out crusts these days. It must be a special occasion for me to “go to the trouble” to make a pie, because extra time I do not have.

But then suddenly, in between a History lesson with Malachi and taking time to proof-read a paper for Justus, I thought of the idea to turn a regular pie crust into a Chocolate Pie Crust. And would you believe? Tuesday afternoon became a special occasion, just like that. For no reason, I made a pie.

I mean, I do think one of the boys did exceptionally well on his math lesson that day. I did three loads of laundry like a boss. The mailman delivered some mail that wasn’t bills. The kitchen floor got swept. I answered several emails. For all these reasons and more, it seemed that a pie was in order. I can think of no other reason to celebrate, can you? Things like this call for pie with chocolate crust. Obviously.

Place flour, salt, cocoa, and brown sugar in a bowl or food processor.

Stir to combine.

Add palm shortening or butter.

Blend until shortening is cut throughout the flour and the mixture resembles crumbs.

Add cold water until a soft ball of dough has formed.

Roll dough on a well-floured surface until it is slightly larger than your pie pan.

Fold dough in half, then in half again.

Place dough into pie pan and unfold to cover the pan.

Shape edges as desired.

Poke crust 4-5 times with a fork to prevent bubbles from forming while baking.

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.

Allow crust to cool before adding cream filling of choice!

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In a couple of days I will share a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pie recipe with you that is simply perfect to fill this Chocolate Pie Crust. In the meantime, I also suggest filling your baked shell with:

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I think it’s obvious that I’ve come to this conclusion about food: Why make it in the oven when you can make it in a waffle iron? This is most often true when trying to keep the house cool in the summertime. I love not having to turn on the oven!

After so many days of enjoying my waffle iron experiments, my family started suggesting more and more ideas for me. Hmm. Actually, it’s possible they were making fun of me. “Are you going to start making everything in the waffle iron now, Mom? Have you considered spaghetti?”

I don’t think they were serious, but don’t assume that I didn’t give it at least a few seconds of deliberation. I would have called it a Spaghaffle. But that sort of rhymes with awful and that’s where my brainstorm ended. You’re welcome.

Other fun waffle iron experiments that actually work great:

Today’s new idea: Strawberry Shortcake Waffles. These turned out fantastic. Also, they are cute. This matters very much.

I adapted my original Strawberry Shortcake recipe and tried scooping it into my waffle iron. We went through several pounds of strawberries and a lot of homemade whipped cream the morning I first made these. Top with Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait filling if you want an even bigger treat!

Whipped cream (fresh cream whipped to form soft peaks, with a bit of stevia or sugar added for sweetness)

Instructions

Mix together flour and baking powder.

Add in eggs, honey, oil, vanilla and milk.

Mix well.

Scoop ½ cup batter into a waffle iron and cook for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.

Repeat until all waffle cakes are completed.

Serve with fresh strawberries and whipped cream

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Let’s keep the waffle iron recipes coming, shall we? Anybody have any new ideas for me? And please note that the idea of Tossed Salad Waffles have already been suggested, considered, and thrown out during a Coppinger Waffle Discussion. The sky is not the limit when it comes to waffle iron recipes. Just almost.

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A few weeks ago while researching how I could add more fat into my diet, I came across this recipe for Fat Bombs.

That, my friends, is a Fat Bomb. They look like something terribly naughty. But instead, they are full of so much good nourishment! Your day just took a turn for the better. You have no idea how happy I am to share these with you!

Have you ever even heard of Fat Bombs? I sure hadn’t. But the biggest question is: why would I try to see how I could add more fat to my diet?

Well, I’ve been reading and studying more about regulating my hormones and blood sugar and keeping my adrenals functioning well – you know. Just a little light reading. Everything keeps pointing me back to “eat a lot of protein” and “eat a lot of good fats.” Hey, you don’t have to tell me twice.

Now, protein is an easy one for me. I love and crave meat most of the time. But I have been realizing that getting plenty of fat is a little bit more difficult (beyond what is naturally in the meat I’m being forced to eat). I’ve tried eating spoonfuls of coconut oil, but it’s just weird and I don’t love it.

See here’s the funny thing: I find that I mostly use butter and coconut oil in baked goods. But I’m no longer eating many baked goods. I can stir some butter into my veggies, but that’s still not very much fat. Cream in my coffee? Sure, but I’m trying to cut back on caffeine too (prayers welcome).

I’d be mad at my hormones and blood sugar and adrenals about all of this, but my quest to find wellness for all of these led me to find out about these Fat Bombs. So ALL IS FORGIVEN.

Everyone else can have their sugary cakes and cookies and I don’t even care because I get to eat Fat Bombs. They are kind of a cross between a Peanut Butter Cup and a Huge Piece of Fudge. No one feels sorry for me now. Everyone is jealous. But not to worry. I am here to share the recipe so that you, too, can make Fat Bombs.

Now, first, a warning: If you are expecting these to taste super sweet like a piece of Christmas fudge or an actual peanut butter cup, you will be disappointed. But if you appreciate the need to cut back on sugar and you prepare yourself for a lightly sweetened peanut butter chocolate treat, you will bite in and be so happy that you get to eat many bites before it’s gone. Yes, you will be so, so happy.

You will offer them to your family, saying something like, “These are so amazing!!!! You won’t like them, though.”

But as for me, I’m loving the Fat Bombs. So far I’ve only made a Chocolate Peanut Butter variety but a little Pinterest searching told me there are other kinds that I should try. Okay then. If you’re going to twist my arm.

Liquid stevia to taste (I use 1½ droppers full of NuNaturals Brand.) or 2-3 Tablespoons honey

Instructions

In a small saucepan, heat and stir together coconut oil, cocoa powder, butter, and peanut butter.

Once melted and mixed, remove from heat and stir in stevia.

Pour into 12 muffin lined muffin tins.

Freeze for 20 minutes or refrigerate for 2 hours.

Store in fridge and eat as needed.

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Isn’t it happy irony that these also have protein in them? It’s like I’m getting a two for one on needed nutrients here.

Note: These do not taste as yummy when they are room temp. Keep them cold and eat them directly out of the fridge. Take it from me.

Fun Fat Fact: It’s hard to over-eat these. After two bites I always think that I will finish one and enjoy a second because I’m loving it so much. But by the time I finish the one, I am full and satisfied, ready to stop eating. Then I stay full for a couple of hours, which is great because I typically need to eat little bits all day long.

I love this about good fats. They satisfy. (As opposed to empty carbs or bad fats that tell your body that you need more in order to be satisfied, so we tend to over eat them.)

Why Good Fat is Good

It gives us energy. (So don’t eat fat if you prefer to be lethargic.)

It builds healthy cells.

It helps our bodies use Vitamins A, D, E, and K.

It helps us have healthy skin, as well as helps our other organs to be protected. (Skin is an organ. I always forget this, but I think it’s so cool.)

So there you go. We all need to be eating good fats. These Fat Bombs make eating good fats extremely fun and happy, and they only take a few minutes to stir together.

Oh how I hope you like the Fat Bombs as much as I do. Best treat ever. (So says the girl who hasn’t had a cookie for a very long time.)